Leftovers: telling stories, eating stories, and finding beauty in our remnants.
A food project highlighting meaningful meals prepared by friends and family with recipes inherited from moms, sittos, nanas, and stories shared through cultural eating.
LEFTOVERS is in partnership with David Eardley and Anna Ling of Pink Essay x Roomy to showcase each person’s unique and favorite kitchen objects, and the stories tied to them.
“Mel”
Arroz a la Cubana
Melissa is a journalist for the New York Times and was previously Yardy's community lead.
She’s the kind of woman who instantly sees you- really sees you- without having to say a word. Her personality makes one feel perfectly at home and embodies this love and care through her cooking.
“I'm using my mama’s arroz a la cubana recipe that she recently sent me over text (with very little deets on measurements of course. It was one of her dishes, among many, that I requested for special occasions.
Or if she had enough money for the week, she’d make it as a celebration for that moment of abundance. It’s also a dish that requires the rice to be made into a perfect cup-shaped mountain, which was quite the spectacle for little me.”
-Mel
“Salt Bae”
Hashweh
Jess is a photographer, director, and another powerhouse whom I’m honored to know.
She is the type who will teach you how to be soft, but have your back with a kitchen knife when a stranger knocks at your door at 10pm; a healthy balance.
“Hashweh is a simple Lebanese dish of just rice, lamb, and pine nuts, but it's my favorite meal, and makes me feel closer to my ancestors.
I made this dish a few times. When my dad left, my relationship with food totally changed because it’s something we bonded with.
I had a really hard time eating and cooking because nothing was ever going to be as good as my dads, which was really hard for me.
I also lost both of my grandparents within the same year... so I was like, well fuck, when will I be able to eat more of these dishes? I wasn’t prepared to not have anyone teach me these meals all of a sudden. But now that I’m in my late 20s, I wish I would’ve asked questions when I had the opportunity. So now I’m just trying to figure it out.”
-Jess F
“Deep Routes”
Cheddar Jalapeño Cornbread and Vegan Chili
Maya is a powerhouse and one of the most thoughtful women I know. I met Maya in 2019 while I was working as a market manager for a food access program called Fresh Food Box with GrowNYC. My market was at Hunter College, where Maya was finishing her B.S. in Community Health Education. She was one of my customers and would religiously pick up her food box every Thursday. She’s one of the first people who supported my ideas of starting a zine surrounding cooking/poetry and hosting community dinners, attending every single one.
“It’s not very Baltimore, but it’s a huge comfort food for me and one of my go-tos for weekly meal prep.
I grew up with two very different chili recipes, but this one comes from my paternal grandma via my dad since she was not about that recipe sharing life, but my dad says that this is how she made it.
Any recipe I have that’s attributed to my grandma, my parents got from watching her or guessing by eating. Earlier this year when I was interviewing my dad about my grandma, he’d said this recipe represents her cooking the best since it’s comforting, simple, and really flavorful.
I like making foods that my grandma made because I really miss her and as an adult I’m always looking for ways to be close to her, usually through food or humming little songs to myself.”
-Maya
“Soup Vein”
Sweet Potato and Apple Latkes with Cinnamon ‘Sour Cream’
Jess is a passionate pistol and activist, who uses food as a means of self care and social justice. She created a fun zine Soup Vein (@soupvein ) to share with friends, which features holistic, sustainable recipes, poetry, and essays surrounding ideas of nature, nurture, and the ways in which we keep ourselves full.
“I wanted to make a recipe I learned to master from my grandmother. Recipes are passed down as “handfuls of this” and “dashed of that” - nothing is formally measured. I remember watching my Nana rhythmically conduct Passover Seder as I’d impatiently sneak nibbles of delicious hot, fried, buttery potato. It’s a dish almost impossible to get on the dinner table because everyone in the family noshes on them while we cook the rest of the meal. I have been trying to modernize the traditional Jewish recipes of the generations before me. The recipes are simplistic, so I amplify ingredients but maintain the comfort and familiarity of home cooked Jewish meals. It has been a practice or reconnecting with my roots while I am 3,000 miles away from my family.”
-Jessica
